Save Madagascar’s lemurs

Madagascar has some of the world’s most unique animals but over 100 species that live here are on the edge of extinction. The amazing ‘dancing’ Sifaka. The Gremlin like Aye Aye. Chameleons, Spiders, Radiated Tortoises and the recently discovered Golden Bamboo Lemur are all battling for survival. We meet the amazing people who are working to save their wildlife before it’s too late.

Lemurs have captured the public imagination in movies such as “Madagascar,” but now these adorable primates are on the brink of extinction, conservationists say.

Nineteen lemur conservationists and researchers published a call-for-action to save Madagascar’s 101 lemur species from the threats of deforestation and poaching stemming from the country’s political woes.

The Malagasy people are some of the poorest in the world, living on less than $2 per day. Following the political crisis, the lemurs’ habitat has been under siege from an illegal trade in precious hardwoods, forest burning to clear space for crops and a thriving bushmeat trade.

The remaining forest habitat is an estimated 36,000 square miles (92,200 square kilometers), just 10 to 20 percent of the original forest cover, down from 41,000 square mi. (106,600, square km) in 1990, according to the article. And most of the habitat is inadequately, or not at all, protected.

The researchers called for the adoption of an emergency conservation action plan described Aug. 1, 2013, on the IUCN’s website. To prevent lemur extinction, the plan calls for community-based, protected-habitat management, promotion of ecotourism and a steady researcher presence in Madagascar.

Another co-author of the Science article, Ian Colquhoun, an anthropologist at the University of Western Ontario, in Canada, highlighted the economic potential of preserving the lemurs. “I think there is huge potential for Malagasy all over the island to take pride in their lemurs,” Colquhoun said in a statement.

Food-finding tests in five lemur species show fruit-eaters may have better spatial memory than lemurs with a more varied diet. The results support the idea that relying on foods that are seasonally available and far-flung gives a competitive edge to individuals with certain cognitive abilities — such as remembering where the goodies are: here.

Over the weekend, the IMAX documentary Island of Lemurs: Madagascar opened in theaters. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it is an attempt to raise awareness about efforts to conserve what researchers call the most threatened mammal on Earth. Here’s a glimpse at other threatened and endangered animals that have made headlines recently: here.